Fresh off earning his degree and riding the wave of one of the most viral songs of the year, Samad is one of the most exciting new names in Nigerian music right now. With storytelling at the heart of his sound, he’s carving his own lane, somewhere between tradition, humor, and relatability.

We caught up with Samad to talk about his music, growth, and what success looks like for a young Nigerian artist with global dreams.

Let’s get into it!

Congratulations on getting your degree. There’s so much motion on your end right now, and I’m excited for everything happening for you. How are you feeling at this moment?

Thank you very much. I’m feeling excited. I feel blessed and ready to go.

If you had to describe your sound, how would you illustrate it to someone just listening to Samad for the first time?

My sound is Samad, originally. Everything about Samad. My roots inspire me a lot. I blend traditional sounds and Yoruba stories because I’m a big fan of the culture. I mix past Yoruba stories with today’s vibe to keep the culture alive. I’m big on storytelling as well, so every track has a little bit of that, here and there. My songs, sometimes, are fictional. Other times, they are inspired by real-life experiences and the people around me.

I think the storytelling bit is interesting because I listened to “Confession”, and it felt like an actual movie. I also saw that your Instagram bio says, “using rap as a tool of humour & storytelling”; how did storytelling become such an important part of your music?

Yeah, I read a lot of stories going up. I listened to stories from elderly people around me, as well. I thought to myself, “What could make me stand out from other people doing music?” Everybody sings and adds a bit of emotion there, but I think storytelling in Afrobeats is not popular. I felt that if I could add storytelling into my music, I’d be on another level. I’m good with stories, and I hear a lot of them, listening to people’s experiences as well. So, I made it a big part of my art and saw that people were actually feeling it, so I just kept doing it.

Interesting. Since you love stories, if you could be any character from any story, be it a movie or a book, what character would you be?

I don’t watch a lot of movies like that, so let’s see. This is interesting. Two characters come to mind, and both of them are geniuses. One is Arsène Lupin, a French thief. The second one is Michael Scofield (Prison Break).

Thanks for sharing. Do you see yourself as an Afro-Adura artist?

Nah, I won’t lie. Not really. Although right now, I tread that path a little bit because of what I sing about, I don’t want to be boxed in as an Afro-Adura artist. I’m very versatile. Afro-Adura is just a part of Samad. I can do proper rap. I can do R&B as well. So, I can’t say I’m totally an Afro-Adura artist. That’s just a part that I’m showing currently.

I would really love to hear you do R&B, and hopefully, it will be a love story this time. I think another thing that really attracted me to your brand is the creative emphasis in your visuals. How involved are you in your creative direction, and how important are visuals to your artistry?

I believe you can make music fun and relatable for everybody. It’s not every time you just sing and try to look cool. My siblings listen to my stuff, so I want to make the music relatable to them as well. One of the videos I made recently had a used tyre and an empty carton. These are things that little kids can relate to. I love to add elements of fun and relatability to my visuals. I also believe visuals aid storytelling, so I’m very, very particular about videos. Of course, I’m also a video editor. It is a skill I picked up on the side, and that has influenced all my works.

So you already said some of your songs are fictional while others are based on real-life stories. What was the inspiration for ‘Lameda”? That’s one of my personal favourites.

To be honest, there is nothing about ‘Lameda’ that is real. That character is very fictional. 

After ‘Hilda Baci’, we knew we needed to record more and have something in the bank. My producer played the beat, and I wanted to tell another story like I did, a bit, on ‘Hilda Baci’. When I heard it, the first melody that came to mind was “Ore mi, Lameda”, and I just built the story from there. It’s a simple story of a guy who has been struggling for years. It wasn’t exactly a real story, but when it came out, and even now, a lot of people connected to the story. Till now, people ask me, “Who is Lameda?” “Where is Lameda?”. He is a fictional character.

Yeah, I think that you probably need to write a book or even a movie for us at this point. You recently made a freestyle off a negative comment you got on Twitter. What prompted you to respond the way you did, and did you expect the reception it got? 

Hmmm. You know Twitter na, people just talk. That comment caught my eye, and I felt I needed to turn it around. I didn’t want to let it hold me down. So I just wrote a few lines in like 20 minutes. Nothing serious because for me, that kind of stuff is not too deep. I was just writing. When I posted it, people were like, “Don’t worry, guy. It’s all good. Don’t mind that guy.”  Then Don Jazzy posted, and I was so surprised that people really liked it because it was just like fun for me. I didn’t even take that comment seriously. It didn’t get to me. I just wanted to do stuff with it. And people loved it. That’s like the most liked post on my page right now. It’s coming out as a song very soon. 

I can’t wait to have that on repeat. Moving forward, did you expect the success of ‘Hilda Baci’ and what inspired the record?

I wanted to write about a girl who had a lot of red flags. I had written most of it, but the hook and chorus still were not good enough for me. I kept revisiting the project, from time to time, still trying to maintain the “red flag” storyline. Then, one day, just like ‘Lameda’, I got a simple line, “Chimamanda, Hilda Baci”; I knew I was never letting that one go. So I said, let me build around that and write around that perspective. So I changed the story to something about having a lot of girls around that want me, blah blah blah. That was how that came about. And no, I didn’t expect that much from the song. Nah, never. It was very crazy. I didn’t know people would love it so much.

At what point did you realise how far the song has gone?

When I saw people I couldn’t afford to pay to use the song, using it organically. People that I respect from afar started getting close to me because of the song; that’s when I knew I’d done something. 

That must have felt good. When can we expect a project from Samad? What collaborations are in the works for you?

There’s plenty of stuff coming. I can’t say much about collaboration but yeah, there’s plenty of stuff in the works. We are getting a project this year, that is 150% sure. ‘Hilda Baci’ remix with Rybeena is dropping very soon, I think at the end of the month (It’s out now). So, yeah, a project this year, back-to-back singles too. Then the freestyle, I think I’ll make it into a song as well.

Generally, what would success look like for you in the music industry? 

That would be being at the top of affairs, being with the legends and the GOATs, my music connecting with more people all over the world. I’ve seen people do it from here, so I know it’s very achievable. Success for me would be to achieve what they’ve done and even do better. The goal is to be a global superstar.

From what I know, rap is a big part of your sound. Who are the rappers that have influenced you the most?

Baddo (Olamide) is always the GOAT. He is at the top of my list. He is the biggest inspiration and influence on my sound.